Gavin Newsom is pushing for an AI kill switch

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is positioning the state to take the lead on AI oversight, including the potential to mandate a “kill switch” for frontier models, with a new executive order issued Friday.

Newsom’s order directs the state to convene a group of experts that will deliver recommendations within two months on how to strengthen AI safety measures in state law. Newsom wants the group to consider how the state could require AI companies to embed independent verification groups onsite for regular audits, make their transparency reports and risk assessments subject to standards of independent auditors, create a “kill switch” that’s routinely verified as effective, and make sure companies are required to report “loss-of-control incidents” like the OpenAI attack on Hugging Face as critical safety incidents. It also directs a state agency to speed up implementation of two recent laws he signed, creating a framework for independent verifiers to assess AI safety, and a state registry of AI auditors.

There’s been a flurry of bill discussions in Congress in the wake of former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon’s post warning of a more than 10 percent chance that AI “could kill all humans” within a decade. But there’s little hope in Washington that a bill of substance could pass anytime soon given that the House is on recess until November, and the impending midterm elections make major legislation movement in the Senate similarly unlikely. At the same time, President Donald Trump has insisted, “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND ​SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”

Newsom’s executive order is likely not the last we’ll hear from California on this topic. On Wednesday, he floated the possibility of calling California lawmakers in for a special legislative session on AI in an interview with Politico, alongside potential executive action. He is specifically positioning the order as a model for federal action, calling on Congress and Trump “to review and adopt the state’s framework, or use its nation-leading regulation as a floor, not a ceiling, for the benefit and safety of all Americans.”

“The federal government’s abject failure to create any form of meaningful AI oversight or accountability should alarm every American, especially when AI CEOs themselves are begging for regulation,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re not waiting to act – we’re going to speed up our work on substantial and responsible AI oversight before it’s too late. We’re going to do this thoughtfully but with urgent velocity; the stakes are too high to wait or delay action.”